Cynthia

November is Diabetes Awareness Month! I am pleased to present you with D-Quote, a Diabetes Light initiative that gives voice to our community and helps provide awareness for this challenging invisible condition. Thank you for reading. I encourage you to pass these meaningful quotes and stories along to increase our advocacy and outreach efforts. All advocacy moves us closer to a cure. Thanks for your help! 

**A special thanks to our community members for taking the time to write and bravely share their stories and experiences to provide diabetes awareness.

*****

“Last night Rach had a delayed hypo at 1am and so I brought her a juice box and she drank it, in her sleep like always because she is so used to being woken that she will drink it and be half asleep. The juice did not work so I tried to get her to drink some more juice and she didn’t want any more and so she held her mouth shut and refused to drink any more.

Moments like these, I just feel so sad, that I have to force my child to eat or drink just to keep her safe. It hurts so much knowing that I am her mummy and there is not one thing I can do to take this disease away from her. It hurts, trying to explain to your child why you are constantly stabbing them with needles and sets and her not understanding that the very things that hurt her, also keep her alive and safe. I would do anything for my child, anything! But the one thing she wants I can’t give her.

Fast forward to this morning and my babe woke up and was full of sunshine and happiness ready for her Walk to Cure Diabetes. Our Diabetic children are amazing! They deal with so much and I know how hard this disease is to live with and yet they keep on looking up.

My girl gives me hope in my darkest hours because she keeps pushing on through in her hard times and she makes me, her mummy do that also. I love her so much and seeing this smile on her face today helps me through these hard times when all I want to do is cry. She is my blessing in life. I love her so much!”

Lisa McGarry
Type 1 Diabetic for 13 years & Diabetes Mum.
and Rach is
Rachel McGarry
Type 1 Diabetic
diagnosed 22nd February 2012
age: 9

You have just read a D-quote, a Diabetes Light initiative to create awareness and support for November’s Diabetes Awareness month. Please like, comment and share to promote advocacy and awareness for diabetes. Thank you!

*Like/follow us on Facebook at Diabetes Light: My holistic journey to health to read more quotes this month from those living with and affected by diabetes. The quotes are also being shared at http://diabeteslight.com!

In Peace & Light,

Cynthia

November is Diabetes Awareness Month! I am pleased to present you with D-Quote, a Diabetes Light initiative that gives voice to our community and helps provide awareness for this challenging invisible condition. Thank you for reading. I encourage you to pass these meaningful quotes and stories along to increase our advocacy and outreach efforts. All advocacy moves us closer to a cure. Thanks for your help! 🙂

**A special thanks to our community members for taking the time to write and bravely share their stories and experiences to provide diabetes awareness.

“Las Vegas is 24/7. Diabetes is 24/7/365 – every decade, every year, every month, every week, every day, every hour, every minute, every second, every millisecond.”

Judy Reich
Las Vegas, NV
Type 1
Dx’d June 1967

You have just read a D-quote, a Diabetes Light initiative to create awareness and support for November’s Diabetes Awareness month. Please like, comment and share to promote advocacy and awareness for diabetes. Thank you!

*Like/follow us on Facebook at Diabetes Light: My holistic journey to health to read more quotes this month from those living with and affected by diabetes. The quotes are also being shared at http://diabeteslight.com!

In Peace & Light,

Cynthia

November is Diabetes Awareness Month! I am pleased to present you with D-Quote, a Diabetes Light initiative that gives voice to our community and helps provide awareness for this challenging invisible condition. Thank you for reading. I encourage you to pass these meaningful quotes and stories along to increase our advocacy and outreach efforts. All advocacy moves us closer to a cure. Thanks for your help! 🙂

**A special thanks to our community members for taking the time to write and bravely share their stories and experiences to provide diabetes awareness.

*****

“People ask me all the time ‘Aren’t you afraid riding your bike on the city streets?’ My answer ‘Never let fear keep you from doing something you love’ and I LOVE riding my bike. Saddle up people. :)’

Christina Ingrassia
Type 1 Diabetes
-You needed to know my diagnosis date Jan 1978, & by the time you post this quote I will be 43 cause right now I am still 42! Ha.

You have just read a D-quote, a Diabetes Light initiative to create awareness and support for November’s Diabetes Awareness month. Please like, comment and share to promote advocacy and awareness for diabetes. Thank you!

*Like/follow us on Facebook at Diabetes Light: My holistic journey to health to read more quotes this month from those living with and affected by diabetes. The quotes are also being shared at http://diabeteslight.com!

In Peace & Light,

Cynthia

November is Diabetes Awareness Month! I am pleased to present you with D-Quote, a Diabetes Light initiative that gives voice to our community and helps provide awareness for this challenging invisible condition. Thank you for reading. I encourage you to pass these meaningful quotes and stories along to increase our advocacy and outreach efforts. All advocacy moves us closer to a cure. Thanks for your help! 🙂

**A special thanks to our community members for taking the time to write and bravely share their stories and experiences to provide diabetes awareness.

“Diabetes may win a few battles, but you control the outcome of the war.”

-Jaim Zuber
Type 3 (husband to a Type 1) for 6 years

I am married to an incredible man, Jaim Zuber is my spouse. Although not always easy, T3’s (friends, family, partners) of those of us with diabetes have big shoes to fill, helping give us support and strength when diabetes is throwing one of it’s tantrums. That support came in the form of this quote one early day in September this year when we were on vacation on the North Shore.

I was rattling on about my diabetes and the frustrations it was causing me one morning when he shared the above wisdom. I loved it in it’s simplicity and truth. Right then and there I made him write it down, saying it was perfect for D-Quote! 🙂 I love my husband and the support and encouragement he provides– it is a big part of coping with this condition day in and day out. Here is a BIG thanks to all of the T3’s in our lives never forgetting to put a smile on our face when we need it most. I love you sweetie! <3

-Cynthia Zuber
Type 1 for 26 years

You have just read a D-quote, a Diabetes Light initiative to create awareness and support for November’s Diabetes Awareness month. Please like, comment and share to promote advocacy and awareness for diabetes. Thank you!

*Like/follow us on Facebook at Diabetes Light: My holistic journey to health to read more quotes this month from those living with and affected by diabetes. The quotes are also being shared at http://diabeteslight.com!

In Peace & Light,

Cynthia

November is Diabetes Awareness Month! I am pleased to present you with D-Quote, a Diabetes Light initiative that gives voice to our community and helps provide awareness for this challenging invisible condition. Thank you for reading. I encourage you to pass these meaningful quotes and stories along to increase our advocacy and outreach efforts. All advocacy moves us closer to a cure. Thanks for your help! 🙂

**A special thanks to our community members for taking the time to write and bravely share their stories and experiences to provide diabetes awareness.

Cynthia

November is Diabetes Awareness Month! I am pleased to present you with D-Quote, a Diabetes Light initiative that gives voice to our community and helps provide awareness for this challenging invisible condition. Thank you for reading. I encourage you to pass these meaningful quotes and stories along to increase our advocacy and outreach efforts. All advocacy moves us closer to a cure. Thanks for your help! 🙂

**A special thanks to our community members for taking the time to write and bravely share their stories and experiences to provide diabetes awareness.

“With Diabetes you must not just think outside the box, you must think as if there were no box.”

 

“Through Education, Support and Encouragement we WILL make a difference.”

Laura
diagnosed at age 19, now 45
Type of Diabetes unknown but suspected as having monogenic diabetes.

You have just read a D-quote, a Diabetes Light initiative to create awareness and support for November’s Diabetes Awareness month. Please like, comment and share to promote advocacy and awareness for diabetes. Thank you!

November is Diabetes Awareness Month! I am pleased to present you with D-Quote, a Diabetes Light initiative that gives voice to our community and helps provide awareness for this challenging invisible condition. Thank you for reading. I encourage you to pass these meaningful stories along to increase our advocacy and outreach efforts. All advocacy moves us closer to a cure. Thanks for your help! 🙂

**A special thanks to our community members for taking the time to write and bravely share their stories and experiences to provide diabetes awareness.

“A little bit about me.  I was diagnosed sometime in the late 70’s with type 2 diabetes.  Treatment never really worked for me.  I was sick all the time.  My temper was short and I alienated a lot of people because of it.  I worked hard, was always tired, and never could get any help with anything; for diabetes or anything else.  I was a miserable person and a miserable person to be around.  Then, sometime in the 80’s I was in the clinic for something else.  My Blood Sugar was off the chart.  I was immediately seen by and endocrinologist and placed on insulin.  Almost immediately, I felt better.  I began to study diabetes, take it seriously and learned to take the medications that I should at the proper time. Later, I learned that I am really an LADA diabetic, not a type 2.  There is a lot more to the story, but there is no time for it.

What I learned through all of this was that acceptance is the key to health.  Too often, we talk about what diabetes does to us.  What we do not stress enough is what diabetes can do FOR us.  It has taught me to be more disciplined, calm, understanding, cooperative, not to take life so seriously, and has made me a more spiritual person.  The words of Charles Swindoll speaks volumes to me when he speaks about attitude.  I would like to share them:

‘The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life.  Attitude, to me, is more important than facts.  It is more important than the past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than failures, than successes, than what other people think, say or do.  It is more important than appearance, giftedness or skill.  It will make or break a company… a church… a home.  The remarkable thing is we have a choice every day regarding the attitude we embrace for that day.  We cannot change our past… we cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way.  We cannot change the inevitable.  The only thing we can do is play the one string we have, and that is our attitude… I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% how I react to it.

And so it is with you… we are in charge of our Attitudes.’

– Charles Swindoll

November is Diabetes Awareness Month! I am pleased to present you with D-Quote, a Diabetes Light initiative that gives voice to our community and helps provide awareness for this challenging invisible condition. Thank you for reading. I encourage you to pass these meaningful stories along to increase our advocacy and outreach efforts. All advocacy moves us closer to a cure. Thanks for your help! 🙂

**A special thanks to our community members for taking the time to write and bravely share their stories and experiences to provide diabetes awareness.

There are so many words I could write in describing what it’s like to live with Type I diabetes and I’m sure many of you are already acquainted with the highs, the lows, the finger sticks, the infusion sets, the needles and, of course, the list goes on and on.  Earlier this year I read a book and the author introduced me to a new word–Eucharisteo–ponder her description of this word:

“Eucharisteo, thanksgiving, envelopes the Greek word for grace, charis. But it also holds its derivative, the Greek word chara, meaning “joy.” Charis. Grace. Eucharisteo. Thanksgiving. Chara. Joy.” (Ann Voskamp)

I think of how empty my life would be if I did not have a supportive husband to assist me in living with the issues that this disease presents.  Larry is a source of GRACE that God has given to me.  With him, I can pour out the frustrations of T1D.

The T1D community is an enormous source of JOY in my life.  There are so many of you that make me smile whether it’s posting a picture of a meter bag full of used test strips or a post that contains a meaningful quote that puts a bit of “oomph” in my day.

And, finally–THANKSGIVING–a word that the month of November turns our hearts and minds to each year.  I’m so very thankful for my physician, who supports me even when my A1c is not what I want it to be, who listens to me and shows genuine understanding because she also lives with a chronic illness.  I’m thankful for insulin and, yes, all the insulin supplies that go along with my substitute pancreas–my insulin pump.  It’s these items that on most days help me sometimes forget–even if for a few hours– that I live with T1D.

Eucharisteo . . . it’s such a beautiful word and such a beautiful way to live life, even with T1D.

November is Diabetes Awareness Month! For those of us living with and impacted by diabetes it is a chance to advocate, educate and provide awareness for this challenging condition. I also think of it as a way to provide support to those of us living with diabetes.

As some of you might know, I share a quote each morning on the Facebook page for Diabetes Light. Last year I started a special initiative involving quotes to promote advocacy for November’s Diabetes Awareness Month. I asked our community members to write a quote about diabetes which was then shared each day for morning quote. We had many awesome contributions and the D-quote campaign was a big success!

I reached out to our community again this year asking them to share a quote with these instructions: your quote about diabetes can promote advocacy, awareness, be something you have learned, something that makes life easier, something that is hard, sad or frustrating, a funny or interesting story, etc. You get my point! I also asked them to provide a picture of themselves which I believe only further increases our advocacy efforts. First by putting a face to a story and also helping people realize just how many people this condition affects. Diabetes has no limits.

So many wonderful and thoughtful quotes have come in and I look forward to sharing them with you most every day this month! I love the opportunity to hear from our community to better understand how diabetes affects them. Many are fresh voices from those who do not currently blog. A BIG thanks to everyone who worked so hard to help put into words what this condition means to them as a way to advocate.

I see advocacy as a way to move us closer to a cure. By sharing what this invisible disease means, how it affects us and the challenges it presents we can better help people understand what we are up against and why we need a cure. Hopefully then when asked for a donation for a diabetes fundraiser someone might be more willing to contribute because they have a better understanding first-hand what this life with diabetes is about.

Thank you to those of you who do not live with diabetes but choose to follow along as a way to more fully understand diabetes and the part it plays in our lives. You are our voice and can help advocate too, sharing our stories when clarification and understanding is needed regarding this widely misunderstood condition.

Lastly, there is one other new thing this year with our D-Quote initiative. Someone I was talking with over the weekend suggested sharing the quote each day not only on the Facebook page but also here in a blog post to help further promote our efforts and outreach. So that is what I am doing. Although the first quote for Diabetes Awareness Month appeared on Facebook on Friday, November 1st, this blog post is going up just a few days late featuring Friday’s quote. Watch for many more inspiring Facebook and blog posts this month featuring D-Quotes—the inspiring thoughts and views of our community regarding life with diabetes.

Without further ado, here is the first November Diabetes Awareness month D-Quote! Thanks so much for reading.

*****

My name is Cynthia. I am a warrior. I live with Type 1 diabetes, a serious life-threatening condition invisible to most. My body does not escape the pain—enduring thousands of needle pokes every year, endless medical appointments to fight for the health many wake up with, exhausting blood sugar fluctuations despite my best efforts, sleep disrupted by low blood sugars, the threat of life-altering complications and at times discrimination. This path has not been easy but I do my best to thrive, educate the misinformed and treat my body, mind and spirit with pristine love and care. Diabetes has helped me learn how to survive despite the most turbulent and frightening conditions. I am strong. I am brave. I am a fighter and do not give up despite the tears and frustration. Diabetes has made me a warrior.

Cynthia Zuber
Type 1 diabetes
Diagnosed at age 11
2/13/87
www.diabeteslight.com

You have just read a D-quote, a Diabetes Light initiative to create awareness and support for November’s Diabetes Awareness month. Please like, comment and share to promote advocacy and awareness for diabetes. Thank you!

*Like/follow us on Facebook at Diabetes Light: My holistic journey to health to read more quotes this month from those living with and affected by diabetes.

**We are still in need of more quotes! Please message me your contribution or email me at cynthia.zuber@gmail.com. Pics with your quote are welcome. Thanks for your help! 

*****

In Peace & Light,

Cynthia

Oh! My endo also made NO changes to my insulin because I’m rocking the numbers pretty darn good on my own. Snap! Haha. 🙂

Boy did this feel good! And I think it is a first that there have not been any adjustments made to my regimen at my quarterly appointment.

Note: I do eat carbs. I don’t follow any particular dietary fad but just eat healthy! I believe in balance and eat an organic gluten free+ whole foods diet. I also allow myself treats, many of which are healthy and I bake on my own. This is what works for me, deprivation does not. My gluten free diet is due to a sensitivity and I also cannot eat corn, dairy and many nuts due to sensitivities.

Daily walks, yoga & meditation, holistic modalities like homeopathy and viewing my health in it’s entirety as mind, body & spirit help me achieve balance in my numbers without too many extremes in lows or highs– the true measure of good control.

An ideal A1C has this balance. It is the extreme fluctuations in blood sugar that are so hard on the body and worse than a little higher A1C without the variation (direct words from my endo today!). Swings in blood sugar increase the inflammation process in the body and also the development of free radicals. So keep ’em steady!

And do not compare your A1C to others because you never know what numbers went into making their A1C what it is! It could be a lot of drastic lows and highs. It could also be great blood sugars and a lot of hard work.

The point is that it doesn’t do anyone any good to compare yourself to others in diabetes management or life! We are all in our own spot in our journey contributing what we are able. And you are doing great!

This is also why I do not share my A1C publicly too often. I work hard to have a number that helps me feel healthy and proud (and also that my doctor is proud of) and that is what is important to me.

Important Reminder!

Not every day looks like this for me—it’s hard work being a pancreas! (as you know..). But I try my best each day and that is the best I can do! I let go of what didn’t go so well the day before and start each day anew.

ps. I shared on the Facebook page to Diabetes Light earlier that my A1C has gone down .4 since switching from the insulin pump to MDI (multiple daily injections/shots). I believe I made the switch in May. Bravo to improvements in insulin (Lantus) that help make this transition easier.

In Peace & Light,

Cynthia